JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR SHOWS SHE IS AN IDIOT

"When are you going to avoid the needless deaths? When are you going to avoid or get around people sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state?" These are questions Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked during the Supreme Court’s hearing on the California prison overcrowding case. Needless deaths? She must believe that thousands of those poor prison inmates are dying needless deaths because they don’t have the comforts of a middle class home. Sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state? Obama has APPOINTED AN IDIOT to the Supreme Court!
　
Responding to Sotomayor’s idiotic concerns on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, ‘kl2008a’ wrote, ‘She should be asked the question in return: "When will the needless deaths end in convalescent homes and hospitals?" Fact of the matter is, people are dying everyday, more out of prison than in.’
　
And ‘stone cold’ wrote, ‘These Judges need to tour Ca. state prisons. Prison is heaven compared to what the homeless are going through, sleeping in the outdoors and getting food out of dumpsters! These criminals see doctors within 24 hours, get good food, have a roof over their heads, and a very easy life. Maybe that’s the reason they keep coming back! Sad that these judges believe all this garbage about these poor little criminals! What about all the innocent people that are going to be RAPED, MURDERED AND VICTIMIZED by these turds when they get released? SAD!’
　
Of course, none of that ever occurred to the liberal justices Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg asked, "How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)? Another 20 years?" For the public’s sake, I certainly hope so! The safety of the general public should trump the discomfort of turds who, after all, are not in prison for singing off-key in the church choir. And you can bet that neither Sotomayor nor Ginsburg have ever set foot inside a California prison.

U.S. SUPREME COURT WADES INTO CALIFORNIA PRISON OVERCROWDING ISSUE
By Michael Doyle

The Sacramento Bee
December 1, 2010
　
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into the thorny and long-standing debate over California prison overcrowding: should thousands of prisoners be released to alleviate horrific penal conditions for those who remain?
　
In a closely watched case, Republican appointees challenged the proposed prisoner-release plan as a threat to public safety while Democratic appointees suggested it was necessary to comply with the Constitution.
　
The ideological divisions in evidence during an unusually long oral argument probably foreshadow another difficult decision for a court that frequently splits along 5-4 lines. The argument also underscores the high stakes and heated emotions in a pair of long-running prison overcrowding cases.
　
"When are you going to avoid the needless deaths?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Carter G. Phillips, the attorney for California.
　
"When are you going to avoid or get around people sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state?"
　
Justice Stephen Breyer noted that the pictures of California prison conditions "are pretty horrendous," while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stressed that one of the overcrowding cases considered Tuesday began in 1990.
　
"How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)?" Ginsburg pressed Phillips. "Another 20 years?"
　
But while at least three justices seemingly endorsed a lower court's order to cut California's prison population, three others raised alarms. State officials have said the lower court's order would require reducing the prison population by 38,000 to 46,000 inmates.
　
"If I were a citizen of California, I would be concerned about the release of 40,000 prisoners," Justice Samuel Alito said.
　
Alito further pressed attorney Donald Specter, of the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, to acknowledge that the recidivism rate for California prisoners released on parole is 70 percent.
　
"Seven zero," Justice Antonin Scalia reiterated, driving the point home.
　
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. added his own concern about activist judges taking over jobs that elected officials could do best.
　
"The point is, this is a budget prioritization that the state has to go through every day, and now it's being transferred from the state Legislature to federal district courts throughout the state," Roberts said skeptically.

Last January, a three-judge panel ordered California to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of its design capacity within two years – to roughly 110,000 inmates. California's 33 state prisons hold roughly 147,000 inmates, Phillips told justices Tuesday. This is down from a high of 160,000 previously cited in legal filings.
　
As often happens, the prison overcrowding decision could rest with Justice Anthony Kennedy. The California native cited "massive expert testimony" about dangerous overcrowding, and said that "at some point, the court has to say, 'You've been given enough time.' "

Eighteen states – including Texas, Alaska and South Carolina – joined an amicus brief that supports California's appeal. These states worry that they, too, might face court orders to release inmates.